Travel: Tuba Club, Restaurant and Pocket Hotel, Marseille

It is crazy that our neighbour France is so out of reach at the moment, but better times are coming and I hope to visit this special place soon: Tuba Club, a former diving club at the port of Goudes reinvented itself as a restaurant and pocket hotel (with only 5 rooms).

Cited by the designer Simon Porte Jacquemus as one of his favourite addresses in town, the history of the Tuba is more than a hundred years old. The place became famous especially in the 1980s, when it housed a diving club frequented by the legendary Jacques Mayol. Since then, the Tuba has fallen into oblivion and was recently bought by a duo of friends from Marseille, Greg Gassa and Fabrice Denizot, accompanied by the interior designer and friend Marion Mailaender. Their vision: a restaurant and bar open to the sea on one side, pocket hotel (5 rooms only) on the other. All in the spirit of a “fishing hut” with minimalist decoration, very natural, infused with simplicity: seagrass floors, iodised woodwork, white sheets, rope lamps, headboards in marine plywood, and “pipe” coat racks created by the artist Elvire Bonduelle. C’est tout. And the usual bathrobes and slippers are replaced by a kit of flippers, mask and snorkel!

Close to the rooms is the Tuba table. A restaurant open to the sea, seating 80 people on two terraces overlooking the cove. À la carte, a happy mix of Mediterranean influences: Sicilian sweets, Marseille grills, Provençal marinades, Greek, Niçoise or Roman salads, local Corsican products and, of course, seafood.

How to get there: Avoid the traffic and take the boat from the train station at the old harbour station to reach the Goudes. Total joy 🙂